Confide in my regard, instead of looking to every transient occurrence for proof of its sincerity; believe my assertion, and you will be happy. It seems to me, that every trifle that has occurred since our marriage, has been made to bear testimony against me; while the important steps I have taken to promote your happiness, have been omitted in the calculation. To go no farther back than this night, you are reproaching me for leaving one of your servants behind, who would be made miserable by a removal; when I am taking the most important step of my life, solely to please you. I am quitting my own family, to carry you among yours, because I cannot bear to hear you pine after your mother and sisters so much. I don't know that my interest-the interest of my wife and children, may not suffer by this step." "Oh! say no more, I entreat," said she. "It is not too late to stop: we will not remove. I insist on it. Never can I bear the reproach of having ruined my family, by my ungoverned sensibilities. O, that my heart were ossified-that I were incapable of feeling! But I shall soon become callous. Yes! I feel it. I am no longer so sensitive as I was: incessant reproaches must have their destined—their desired effect." Here the conversation was interrupted, by a servant's giving notice of my arrival.

The husband soon entered, and greeted me cordially. He was pale and thin, and had a worried, harassed look; as if care had borne heavily on his young heart. Yet he was prosperous in his circumstances, and possessed a numerous circle of respectable friends and connexions. He was naturally a healthy, robust man, with a cheerful, buoyant temper. He led by the hand his eldest child, a delicate, sickly looking boy, who has been over-nursed by his over-fond mother, till he looks like a pining exotic. I am told she never suffered the wind of heaven to

breathe on him, and her husband had been forced, against his better judgment, to acquiesce in her injudicious system of management. Presently, the wife herself appeared, languid and melancholy, with tokens of suppressed emotion, visible to my scrutinizing glance. She had scarcely returned my salutation, when she exclaimed in alarm, on seeing her son sitting in an open door, "Oh, my darling boy, you will catch your death in that draught of air. How could you let him sit there, my dear?— but you never think of these things. I'm sure the poor child will have the croup to-night"—so saying, she hurried him off: his father sighed deeply, and more company coming in, the conversation became general.

As I have fallen upon the plan of exemplifying my precepts by sketches of character, I will begin another letter with a contrast to this melancholy picture. Adieu for the present, my dear girl; if I can save you from the foibles of your sex, and yet preserve their distinguished good qualities in your character, I shall be most happy. Ever your sincere friend.

MY DEAR MARY,

LETTER XI.

Mr. and Mrs. Arundel have passed twenty years in happy wedlock, and it is quite a privilege to see them in their own home, surrounded by their numerous offspring. I spent a week with them, a short time since, and came home with my thoughts rich in images of beauty and virtue. Mrs. A. is still a lovely woman; for happiness seems to have repaired or prevented the

ravages of time in her person. Her husband's eyes in. voluntarily follow her, as she flits about her household duties with a grace that would do honour to juvenile years. It is delightful to hear this couple speak of each other, and give up all the merit of their happiness to the one whom each delights to honour.

"They say conjugal happiness is rare," said the husband; "but I see no reason why it should be. If we only follow common sense, and the Christian rule of doing as we would be done by, there is no doubt but happiness would be the result. We are by nature social beings, and the laws of God encourage us to seek happiness in social connexions; and yet there are dry, steril, withered old bachelors, that will tell you, they dared not marry for fear of being miserable for life. Now for my part, the idea of misery most familiar to me, is exemplified in these very old bachelors. They have no one to sooth the infirmities of declining years, or comfort nature in her most comfortless state. They leave none behind to remember them, and talk with affectionate interest of their endearing qualities. And as for conjugal happiness being a difficult matter, why my wife and I will tell you how we managed the thing! Come, Helen, let us take a retrospect of our early life, and tell our friend the secret of conjugal felicity." His Helen smiled sweetly, and took her seat beside him.

"We began," said she, "by loving one another more than we loved ourselves. This made it easier to give up, than to persist in self-will. I well remember some of our difficulties, however; and when I see thousands wrecked on the same shoals, I always wish I could warn them off, by stating my own experience. Mr. Arundel was a politician when I married him, and I thought it a bitter thing, to see him so taken up with what I could not understand.. Often have I been ready to complain,

when he would come with his head full of grave, statesman-like plans, instead of something pleasant and companionable. He would sit for hours in my presence, as if he did not see me, with his mind brooding over abstract subjects. This required a little exertion of fortitude on my part. Here, he has taken me from my friends, I would say, and yet I have none of his society. I am moped to death-what shall I do? Must I complain, and reproach him? O no. My heart could not frame a reproach. I began to think that my duty required me to submit to his will. That his reveries might be important to other people, if not to me. O, how my heart beat with pleasure, when I heard him applauded vehemently for a speech, made on the very subject which had occupied his mind so long. If I had interrupted him with my selfishness, now thought I, he never would have been able to concentrate his attention so as to excel." "But you forget, Helen," interrupted the husband, "how much you aided me in my labours, by indulging my thoughtful humours, and keeping every thing out of my way, that could possibly give me disturbance; how you brought refreshments to the door of my study, and knocked gently for admittance, and always retreated as soon as I had partaken of your nice cake and cordial. It used to cost me a pretty hard struggle to let you go off, I assure you. If you had made the slightest movement like desiring to stay, I should have kept you, and then my mind would have been taken from the subject I was studying." "Ah!" said Helen, "I remember shedding some foolish tears one day, because I thought you dismissed me coldly. But I went into my room, and prayed that God would give me strength to bear my disappointment, if I was indeed fated to have an indifferent husband." "And I too was a little miffed," said he, "to think that you should never offer to stay

with me. So we were mutually undergoing the same self-inflicted trials." "I remember," said Helen, "the first large party we went to, you were so much occupied with politics, that you did not once approach me, or appear conscious of my presence. A lady, famous for her spirit of malicious observation, whispered loud enough for me to hear her, that you were the most indifferent young married man she had ever seen, and that she was sure you did not care a button for your wife; shortly after the party dispersed, and you tucked me coldly under your arm, and carried me off, without speaking one word during our walk home. As soon as we arrived, I left you, after bringing you your usual evening refreshment,-you called with an absent air for a whole candle, as you intended to sit up all night. I commanded myself as well as I could, and bade you good night with an unsteady voice. You did not reply, and I went to bed wondering if all husbands were as indifferent as mine." "You were a dear good creature," exclaimed her husband, "to bear with me as you did, and I hope you have since had your reward." "O yes, I have indeed!-I have wondered oftentimes since, whether any other women in the world had such attentive husbands as mine. But one of my greatest trials was, when I discovered how much we differed about the management of our children. I was for bringing them up very delicately, and you justly determined that their constitutions should be case-hardened. thing but the strongest sense of duty could have made me submit to this terrible act of self-denial. It seemed to me little less than murder, to subject a delicate infant to the keen air of the morning. I have often cried in secret, when you gave directions for the baby to be carried out to walk." "But, my dear Helen, though I was somewhat despotic in this, yet I had reason on my

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